Congratulations to the 1797 Fiji National Provident Fund members who have opted to pay additional contributions to increase their savings.

FNPF, in a statement released, said that to date 825 members had signed up for additional contribution and had contributed more than $990,000.

In the 2017 financial year, 543 members signed up for additional contributions and 429 members signed up in the 2016 financial year.

This is positive development. Saving money for the future is one of the great habits of financially independent people. They become self reliant because of the way they spend their money.

They have successful habits of controlling their expenses in order to grow their savings. If you want to achieve your financial goal the most important step is to save first.

We have to discard the culture of consumption that often drags us back to debt and strife.

Early this year, FNPF had also released a statement that more than 20,000 people over 55 years of age have no money saved in their Fund accounts.

Some 300,000 people – around 73 per cent – have balances below $10,000.

Low wages and frequent withdrawals have been blamed for the numbers.

This statistic had led the Financial Literacy Working Group of the National Financial Inclusion Taskforce to partner with the FNPF, the Reserve Bank of Fiji and the UN’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) to create an awareness campaign on the dire need to save for retirement.

The retirement expo was a success and there are plans to have the same initiative in other divisions.

The Expo enabled the public to seek advice on retirement planning, find out how to start a busi­ness, obtain information on the various govern­ment grant schemes available.

They were also exposed to financial products such as insurance, investments and loans that could help supplement FNPF savings.

This is a timely reminder that there’s no better time than right now to plan for your future. And it starts with a saving programme.

The sooner we start saving for retirement the less we will have to save in the future.

For FNPF Members they received great news yesterday. Their balances will be boosted by the 6.35 per cent annual interest for the financial year ending June 30, 2018.

About $289million will be credited to members’ accounts on Saturday nightand members should wake up to new balances on Sunday morning.

FNPF’s Chief Executive Jaoji Koroi said: “The interest declared should be reassuring for the members as it continues to reflect the Fund’s strong financial position following the FNPF Reforms. It is also very competitive under the current investment climate.

“It is also important for members to understand that the 6.35 per cent interest credited depends entirely on the balance of their account, taking into consideration movements during the financial year 2018,” he clarified.